


KuroFai week 2017

by sparrowflight002



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I'm keeping the twins' names like they are in Horitsuba, M/M, just makes it easier to read, with Fai being the main character not Yuui
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22980100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowflight002/pseuds/sparrowflight002
Summary: A couple of Kurofai-themed works I did for Tumblr back in 2017. One's a Modern au while the other fits right into the timeline in Recourt.
Relationships: Fay D. Fluorite/Kurogane
Kudos: 10





	1. Day 1-Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> I did 3 of the 6 days, as I had teamed up with a friend, but only 2 of them are fanfics. The title for each chapter has the prompt I was working with.  
> Also these are sorta old now and I cringe a little but they're still ok :)

Fai woke up to chirping sounds of birds outside the window, delightfully awakening him from his deep slumber. As he slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes, the sun rays shining through the window temporarily blinded him and he shoved his head back into the pillow, laughing.

It was nice not to always have morning classes, Fai thought, so you can appreciate special moments like these.

It had been almost a year since Kurogane and him had started rooming together. It had been difficult at first, both of them being away from home for the first time. Fai had it a little easier, with his brother Yuui (a prodigy) being the professor of a cooking class, so he could only imagine how Kuro-pon (he started jokingly calling him nicknames a couple of months ago, to tremendous effect XP) must have felt.

Finally pushing himself out of bed, Fai walked into the main living area and noticed with faint surprise that Kuro had already left. He could tell from the assorted dishes near the sink and the seemingly unrelated food products scattered across the kitchen counter that Kuro must have put together SOMETHING to eat before leaving, so at least that was a relief.

And without burning the building down too! Fai joked to himself as he assumed his familiar spot in the kitchen and began to clean up.

I wonder where he could have gone, Fai thought, I was sure his classes didn’t start till later. It doesn’t matter, though. Kurogane’s a grown man. He doesn’t need my permission to leave. Or to make a mess of the kitchen, apparently!

As Fai continued his morning routine (most of which was hair-brushing, it takes a long time when you have thick hair!) he couldn’t help but think of Kurogane. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence at all, Fai begrudgingly admitted he thought about Kuro a little too often to be normal. Although most days he tried to ignore this fact, today it seemed something was different, something was causing him to notice the empty space in the dorm.

It could be the silence. Besides the chirping of birds and the quiet rustling of leaves from outside, there seemed not to be a sound in the entire place. On a normal day, little noises, little signs of life would fill the rooms. The TV playing softly from across the wall in the mornings, on the lowest volume possible so as not to wake Fai. The scratching of a pencil on the kitchen table, a soft but soothing sound barely registered as he sat, deeply enamoured by a good book and a cup of tea.

Fai stood, one pair of blue eyes meeting the other in the mirror, and only the low, mechanical hum of the fridge to comfort him.

As much as Fai tried to forget the thoughts he had that morning, he couldn’t help but be bothered by them throughout the day. By the time he got out of his Biology lecture, he was so distracted by his own thoughts that he tripped on a curb and nearly faceplanted on the pavement. It barely even fazed him, though; he couldn’t keep his thoughts straight enough to focus. After a while of walking aimlessly, Fai knew he needed to talk to someone, the one other stabilizing force he had. He needed to talk to Yuui.

Due to his distracted thoughts, it took him longer than usual to reach his brother’s culinary building, and once he did he was surprised to see Yuui standing outside the doors, deep in a phone conversation. The instant Yuui looked up and spotted Fai, the worried look on his face dropped immediately to relief. He spoke frantically into the phone for a few more seconds before hanging up and running over to Fai, embracing him in a warm hug.

“Thank goodness,” Yuui sighed letting go of a very surprised Fai, then he stepped back and stared at him, expression hardening. “Where were you? What were you doing?”

“U-um, I was just taking a walk,” Fai defended himself, still unsure of the situation.

“Are you kidding me?” Yuui retorted, making Fai flinch, “Kurogane phoned me and said you weren’t home an hour after you’re normally back from your lecture. He tried phoning you, but you wouldn’t pick up his calls. We were both really worried!”

Baffled, Fai reached into his pocket to check his phone, realizing it was still on silent from the lecture. 23 missed calls! Oh god, what had he done?!

Yuui, seeing the horrified look on Fai’s face, smiled and wrapped his arm around his brother’s shoulders, “C'mon, let’s get you home.”

For the most part, the walk back to the dorm was taken in silence, but Yuui interrupted when they were near.

“So, what did you want to speak to me about?” And then in response to Fai’s shocked expression, “We grew up together, I can tell when you’re hiding something.”

After a long moment of silence, Fai responded.

“I don’t know what to feel anymore. When I met Kurogane at the start of the year, I didn’t feel anything…different about him. I saw it simply as an opportunity to make a new friend. And I’ll admit we did get closer over the year but I didn’t expect any of these feelings…and…EVEN IF I DO FEEL THIS WAY I CANT BE SURE THAT HE FEELS THE SAME!” Fai broke into a sob and stopped in front of the dorm building, “what if he…doesn’t…feel the same?”

Gently, Yuui coaxed Fai in the building and up the stairs to his dorm room, smiling slightly as though he knew something Fai didn’t know. And, even more suspicious, Yuui grabbed Fai’s shoulder when he was about to push open the door like he normally did and knocked instead.

Fai was confused, but before he had time to process anything the door was open, Kurogane standing on the other side. All his emotions fought for dominance within him; the joy of seeing Kuro for the first time that day, the guilt of being ignorant and walking off on his own, the cautious excitement of his newfound feelings but also the crushing fear that they might not be accepted. And so both of them stood there.

Just staring.

Eventually, Kurogane cleared his throat and motioned them both inside. Fai took almost cautious steps, the familiar dorm feeling more alien to him than ever. And though Kurogane didn’t say much, his eyes were always on Fai, the pressure of his gaze felt even more strongly in the moment. He needed to say something.

If he didn’t now, he wouldn’t ever.

Building up his courage, he turned around to look Kurogane in the eyes and-

Those red eyes. So familiar. His eyebrows hid a slight frown, but his eyes were warm and welcoming nonetheless. A look that said, “If you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

Oh, how he wanted to tell him, but there was something inside that held him back, making it so all Fai could do was stare back into Kuro’s eyes. And then, even though he was sure Kurogane must be able to read the turmoil his emotions were in, the other man just gently lifted the corners of his mouth and snickered.

Too baffled by his response to react, Fai stood in silence as Kuro suddenly reached to the counter behind him and grabbed a delicious-looking apple pie. Even though it seemed to have cooled down a good deal (probably in the time Fai was gone), it still emanated the sweet smell of apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar, distracting Fai from his thoughts for just a few seconds and managing to calm him down long enough for him to question the pie’s existence. Fai looked at Kurogane, puzzled.

“What…this…did you…?” Fai asked as he silently cursed his lips for not working properly.

“Ah..um..so, yeah, I made this for you,” Kuro said embarrassedly, looking Fai in the eyes and smiling a slight but truly genuine smile.

An awkward moment passed between the two of them, until Yuui decided to interrupt and explain things.

“Kurogane came up to me at the beginning of the week and said he wanted to do something to celebrate the end of this year’s classes. It’s true it was sort of last minute, but the least I could do was help him bake a pie for you.” He winked slightly at Fai, encouraging him.

It made sense now! That’s why Kuro was gone this morning! That’s why he couldn’t find him all day!

Suddenly, he knew what had affected him that day, the one special thing he had missed throughout. It was simply Kurogane’s presence. Just the assurance of knowing Kurogane was there had been a tremendous stabilizing force in his life.

Making them tea on cold days.

Sitting beside him and occasionally helping with assignments.

Yelling outside the bathroom door when Fai locked him out for three hours each morning to do his hair.

Chasing Fai around the room when he stole the TV remote.

Sitting on their covered porch on stormy days, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain and counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder.

Fai took the pie and glanced up at Kurogane, his emotions overflowing in his eyes. Although Kuro was calmer and more collected, he could tell the very same feelings were reflected in the other man’s eyes. While it might take time for both of them to voice their feelings, it would be well worth the wait.


	2. Day 3- Music

Kurogane had almost had enough of this.

They were walking down the streets of Recort, side by side, or as close as possible with Fai skipping everywhere like a deranged pony.

The kid was still asleep and the princess wanted to stay with him, so that left Kurogane and Fai on world-scouting duty.

“KURO-TAN!” Fai shouted from far down the sidewalk, startling most but only eliciting a slight turn of the head from Kurogane, “I FOUND A BUTTERFLY HORSE! IT’S SO CUTE! COME AND SEE!”

Kurogane simply rolled his eyes and strolled over to Fai, annoyance clearly visible on his face. There was a period of time when it didn’t bother him as much, when it seemed like the facade that constantly covered Fai’s true self had begun to fade. However, after Piffle he raised his defences again, stronger than before, as though the weakness he showed there had frightened him. And so, while it seemed in this world he smiled his brightest and joked the most, Kurogane knew it was simply a desperate struggle to keep on the mask, a mask he so wanted to break. It seemed almost torturous for Fai at this point, and Kurogane couldn’t stand seeing him like this anymore.

He had almost had enough of this.

If only there was some way to get rid of that mask, force it off his face…

Distracted, Kurogane looked around and realized they had arrived at a library building, the first one they had seen throughout their journey.

“I bet Syaoran-kun would looove this!❤️” Fai exclaimed, dancing in front of him before looping his arm around Kurogane’s and attempting to drag him in.

“Yeah, not gonna work, mage,” Kurogane sighed at Fai’s over-exaggerated pouting in response, then slowly walked with him inside.

The inside was so massive that even Kurogane couldn’t feign disinterest. Books lined every wall, staircases climbing to multiple open floors. Fai and him wandered the giant space, with the occasional book interesting Fai, until they turned a corner and sitting against the wall was a… well, it was something that Kurogane had never seen. It looked like a whole bunch of big pieces of wood stuck together, with many white and black levers at the front.

To the tune of the new discovery, Kurogane braced himself for Fai’s excited meowings. But they never came. A little worried, Kurogane glanced over to see Fai, still as a board, staring at it with shock followed by forced impartiality.

“Wow, look at that, Kuro-rin,” He said, voice cracking as he almost hypnotically walked towards it. Kurogane just watched him, eyebrows creased slightly, as Fai sat on the bench slightly below the device, rested his hands on the levers, and slowly began to press them down.

He knew how to do this.

He knew, but he wished he didn’t.

Chord after chord, scale after scale, run after run, it all brought back too many memories.

Ashura-ou.

The huge grand piano in the main foyer.

Learning a different type of magic, magic that stems from sound.

A single piece practiced too many times to count, and even after all this time not able to be forgotten.

Its simple melody rang through the air, vibrating it in a familiar way.

At least I know sound magic can be used here, Fai thought, just in case.

But on a more basic level, Fai listened to the notes he played, tried to focus simply on the sound instead of the memories. Every note sounded stiff and mechanical, but it didn’t bother him as much as it once did. As he reached the end he felt a firm pressure on his shoulder, and shoved his memories inside again, locking them up as tightly as possible in the crumbling prison that was his mind. Whatever he did, he would not let the mask fall today.

It was beautiful.

Kurogane listened as a single lone melody sang out quietly, supported by a chorus of lower tones that eventually built to a loud, slow, and almost painful climax. I was unlike anything he’d heard in Japan. This unfamiliar instrument had a distinct and separated precision to it, unlike the warm, conjoined tones he was used to hearing from his country’s instruments. And the song that came from it matched the instrument’s very essence. A sound nearly perfect and shockingly sad, just like Fai. Or, at least, how he imagined the real Fai to be, the one behind the mask.

Kurogane took one look at Fai and could tell he was crumbling, the foundations that had held him up falling away with every note.

About damn time, Kurogane thought. But contradictory to these harsh thoughts, he walked up to Fai without hesitation and put a strong hand on his shoulder.

As though responding to this, Fai ended the song and attempted to pull himself together, picking up the broken pieces of the mask and fixing it back in place. But Kurogane had seen it falling and knew at this point it was cracked beyond repair. Eventually the mask would break and Fai would be forced to deal with whatever he’d been hiding, but Kurogane wouldn’t let him pull away, wouldn’t let him be alone. Whatever lies ahead, they would face it together.


End file.
